Sara Lee Appoints New CFO

Sara Lee Corporation names Marcel H. M. Smits executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective October 1, 2009. Smits will have responsibility for the corporation's accounting, tax, treasury, procurement and information technology (IT) departments. Smits will report to Brenda C. Barnes, Sara Lee Corp.'s chairman and chief executive officer.

 

"Marcel brings great finance, leadership and international expertise, and we're delighted to have him join our team," says Barnes. "He's a seasoned professional with broad experience in consumer packaged goods and retail and we expect him to quickly contribute to our finance, operations and global business strategy."

 

Smits joins Sara Lee from Dutch telecom leader Koninklijke KPN NV, where he served as chief financial officer and as a member of the management board. At KPN, Smits oversaw a number of acquisitions and restructurings which drove top-line growth and bottom-line savings. Prior to KPN, Smits was chief financial officer and a member of the management board of Vendex KBB (now known as Maxeda), a Dutch retail group, where he also managed the IT function. In addition, Smits held various financial and management positions in Europe, South America and Asia in his 13-year career at Unilever.